Let the healing process begin. Like a wounded couple inching back together after a rough period and some grueling (but helpful) therapy, the town's writers and their studio and network colleagues -- who genuinely like each other much of the time -- seem ready, eager even, to get back into the trenches together.
Now that a tipping point has been reached with a tentative agreement on the table that seems destined for ratification by Writers Guild members, everyone just wants to move forward. Focus on the positive. Get back to making entertainment. And money. That is, assuming that writers actually voted to lift the strike today (the tally was not completed by press time Tuesday).
Just before the strike began last November, this space aired the "worried but resolute" voices of writers on the edge of a grim unknown. As they head back into the mixed blessing that is "business as usual," those voices, equally resolute, once again ring with notes of hope and ambition.
Zak Penn
("X-Men: The Last Stand," "The Grand")
"I'm hoping to go back into work on the television show ["Section Eight"] that we stopped doing when the strike started. I'm hoping that all the people who were working on that show can get their jobs back and we can try to go and make it. We were about to go into production on six episodes. Literally, we were trying to finish the script when the strike hit. It is a very weird circumstance to have stopped in the middle of writing something.
"It'll be a little bit tricky [getting back into the writing groove], but you know what? Writing's always difficult. I don't say that like 'poor me.' I always find it hard to sit down and concentrate and write. As a writer, you get used to that -- taking some time where you haven't written anything in a while and then you have to suddenly get back up and do it really, really quickly."
Jessica Bendinger
("Bring It On," "Stick It")
"I've been writing a book for Simon & Schuster for the last year, so I had that to stay focused on. That was a blessing. I'm just taking everything in stride. It's been such a herky-jerky couple months that I want to wait and see how this unfolds. But in terms of my interactions with my attorneys and my agents, they're like, 'We're gonna be swamped this week. Oh, it's gonna be crazy.' It feels like everybody's anticipating some big push.
